Įłàà katı̀ Traditional Knowledge Festival - 2014

Traditional knowledge has been with us forever, guiding how we make our living here in the Northwest Territories. However, despite years of debate in public settings, involving virtually all sectors of our socioeconomic reality, elders' knowledge is still being marginalized and tokenized, especially in the environmental assessment arena. Concerned about this, we decided to approach a group of internationally-recognized knowledge experts to engage in a conversation with us about how we might change this.

We felt that since the northern-powers-that-be weren’t listening to the elders, we hoped to invigorate the debate by bringing in highly-respected, international experts, and letting them lead us in a lengthy, collaborative discussion. The result of our planning is Įłàà Katı̀: Traditional Knowledge Festival 2014. We hope that the conversation we have during this weekend of linked events helps set a meaningful course of action for the future, helping to create a Northwest Territories where traditional knowledge holds equal status with Western knowledge.